On mesmerism.

  • Russell, John Rutherfurd, 1816-1866.
Date:
[between 1800 and 1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On mesmerism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    new title of odyle. It is enough for us as physicians to try and discover what mesmerism does, not what it is; and it seems to us that mesmerism, however produced, is the hypnotic par ex- cellence. We have already indicated the immense value of sleep, and if mesmerism really he a sleep-producing agent over which we have certain control, its value must he immense. It is asserted to have another value, in making us acquainted with pheno- mena of disease by means of clairvoyance; into this too we shall briefly enquire. In the first place, however, we shall consider it in its direct therapeutic bearing^ as enabling us tGfc~a&i*i£d that exquisite 'gepaae to patients, thg want of which we know gives rise to many positive diseases*. as well as being in itself a source of indescribable suffering and distress : and in the following obser- vations we shall speak entirely from personal experience which we have had of its efficacy in a few cases, and which has con- vinced us that mesmerism is quffe indispensable for the success- ful treatment of a certain limite»class of diseases. We do not mean to deny to it a larger sphe^ of usefulness, but in the wider range to which its professe\ advocates promote it we believe it may merely rank as one o\many useful appliances, whereas in the more limited sphere it stands entirely alone, as the only curative agent. Of course by calling it a hypnotic we remove it from the category of strictly IWUrePopeilaic remedies; we do not consider its action in the cases we are about to spake of as homoeopathic. But as we never meant by adopting the homoeopathic law as our guide to deprive ourselves of our moral liberty as physicians, we need hardly observe that we consider ourselves perfectly justified in employing this or any other adjuvant which does not interfere with the administration of the minute doses we are in the habit of using, and we cannot but regret the tendency of the profession at present to cut itself into fragments, each re- presenting a fractional truth. It seems to us just as rational that physicians should be called respectively, cathartic, dia- phoretic or emmenagogue, as water-cure or mesmeric doctors.